Colony Theatre

4935 Georgia Avenue NW,

Washington,
DC20011

As 2014 closes there is scant trace of the Colony Theatre. The present remodeled building is called The Colony, but the interior is rebuilt as a senior center. Look at the 2nd floor of the facade and you can spot a few signs of the former theatre, which later survived many decades as a church.

The Colony was at Georgia Avenue and Farragut Street, N.W., a block south of the spot indicated by the Google Street View. (It’s the light-brick building in the distance, in fact.) The blog linked above has a drawing of the building whose caption gives the cross street (also posted on Flickr below).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40433497@N05/4054269159/

Possibly the 4935 Georgia address is a little off.

My mother grew up a few blocks away on Allison Street in the 1920s and regularly walked to this or other theaters around the Petworth area.

I was in this area last week and could not locate any building with a 4935 Georgia Avenue NW address. There are a couple of structures in the 4900 block which kinda look like former theatres, but not with this street number.

The COLONY was a 3rd Run house under Warner management, playing films one week after, and slightly cheaper, than Warner’s newer and nearby KENNEDY and SHERIDAN. (All 3 still exist, as churches.) The COLONY had one glorious last harrah under Warner’s. Somehow they got Audery Hepburn’s ROMAN HOLIDAY one day earlier than other theatres and filled all 3 shows to standing room only. The really smart KB chain later leased the COLONY where they’d showcase AAA+ movies that had played-off too quickly elsewhere. Revivals of pictures like MARTY, a few months after playing elsewhere, lasted several weeks at the COLONY. As the neighborhood declined into unchecked crime, that option eventually failed. The COLONY is part of a larger building and that saved it. Anyway, nobody’s building anything new near here.